But while many are under the impression their dollars go directly to the school district they check off, the funds are actually pooled provincially and distributed to schools based on enrollment.

“We were constantly told that Catholics paid for Catholic education. And that didn’t seem to add up,” said APUPIL spokesperson Luke Fevin.

The numbers show roughly $1.9 billion of property taxes collected in 2014-15 were from taxpayers who chose to support public, versus $214 million from those supporting Catholic.

Whether you dedicate your education property taxes to the Public, Catholic/Separate school board, it does not actually make a penny's difference to education funding. This misleading box is an anachronism that should have been deleted when the taxation powers of school boards were removed in 1994. Education Property taxes from across Alberta are collected by municipalities and then pooled into the general revenue of the provincial government. They are then allocated via per student funding to each individual school board. More students? Funding goes up. More people designate their funding to your school board but your enrollment stays the same? No new money.

So the next time you here someone say “But I send my taxes to the X system!”, you can clarify that it only matters where they send their children, not their tax dollars. And the next you hear someone not understanding how we need more money for new school construction or to hire more teachers even though your property tax went up, make sure to clarify that these are unrelated issues.

As a thought experiment, the provincial government could cut the education property tax amount to zero, and while that would reduce the revenue the provincial government took in, assuming constant enrolment, the funding that flows to any school board would remain the same because of the per pupil funding formula.

Here are a few other reasons to get rid of the fictional check box:

It’s creating unnecessary paperwork: I believe it was an oversight that was missed in this process. As the province is reviewing amendments to the Modernized Municipal Government Act, it is time that we made education property tax transparent and more efficient– this is unnecessary paperwork. This would be a very simple and straightforward amendment that would reduce paperwork for municipalities and Alberta Education.

It confuses the public as to why their badly-needed school isn’t built yet:I’ve often heard expressions of frustration that given the fact hundreds of new residents indicated that they wanted to send their taxes to the public school system, so why didn’t we take that money and build a new school? Can’t we count the houses that mark an X? Because the Education Property tax does not impact school funding and new schools are awarded by the Government of Alberta (more on this later) it puts school boards — both Public and Catholic — under scrutiny and deflects blame from previous governments that took away our ability to generate our own revenue for operations or capital projects and have not fulfilled our evidence-based school needs list that is our capital plan!

It gives the provincial funder a political shield against adequately funding Education: Since 1994 when the provincial government removed the taxation powers of school boards, the provincial government is our sole funder. We are funded on a per-pupil enrolment basis and the responsibility for resourcing our schools falls solely to the provincial government. They even set the education property tax amount that is requisitioned from municipalites. We must hold them accountable and it could be argued that the existence of the “designation” allows, intentionally or not, a hanging question of “Well maybe funding to a board decreased because ratepayers dedicated their funding elsewhere.”

It does not assist student enrolment planning: As I mentioned in a previous post students move freely between Catholic and Public systems as well as within schools. You do not need to show your property tax forms as a parent at pre-enrolment and it will not guarantee you a space in the line for a crowded school or a lottery. Remember, thousands of renters do not assign their taxes so we don’t know their intention either. Capital plans are not based upon the number of people who check the box one way or another and remember renters don’t check the box at all! This further confuses our capital planning process on where Catholic or Public school boards need new schools and misleads the public.

The box gives people a false sense of control over where their money is going. It seems almost fraudulent or at the very least a misrepresentation of facts. Most people I speak with don’t realize the box is really NOT a thing.

Jenilee Ljevaja signed
2017-11-02 21:35:14 -0600

Brad Jones signed
2017-10-23 21:12:20 -0600

Dave Colburn signed
2017-10-23 15:07:09 -0600

An antiquated, largely misunderstood formula, that needs to be eliminated, placing the funding of public education squarely where it belongs on the shoulders of the provincial government.

Melissa Bovaird signed
2017-10-23 14:59:17 -0600

H. Vicky Couteret signed
2017-10-22 14:47:24 -0600

Rod Soholt signed
2017-10-22 11:22:58 -0600

Cameron Johnson signed
2017-10-21 22:43:07 -0600

Amber Michaud signed
2017-10-21 09:26:24 -0600

Tait Lawton signed
2017-10-21 00:54:16 -0600

Eric Warnke signed
2017-10-20 23:01:25 -0600

I am in favour of a unified school board with religious electives available to students who wish to pursue education on those subjects. Splitting our education system hurts students and is a waste of tax payer money.

Lori Bauckman signed
2017-10-20 22:38:08 -0600

Marilyn Bergstra signed
2017-10-20 22:18:49 -0600

After door knocking electiom after election it is clear that citizens lack modern context related to this process; a process that is solely symbolic at this point in history.